The Vampire Cat
by QueenLazyBuns
Summary: Naruto, Sakura, and Kiba are sent on a mission to reveal the culprit that is bewitching a feudal lord.
1. Blood

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Vampire Cat

Chapter 1: Blood

The sliding door was open to allow the warm, summer breeze to waft into the room. Outside the Sakura trees seemed to be dancing in the sunlight, shaking as the wind caressed the branches.

The feudal lady sat across from them. Dressed in a bright yellow kimono; a matching fan covered her heavy, make-up caked face. Her hair was done up in a traditional style of the country. Beside her sat another woman, she was dressed similar to the feudal lady but in a red and white kimono.

The three ninja bowed in respect before sitting down.

"Welcome to our home." The woman in the red and white said with a bow of her head.

"It's a pleasure to serve you, milady." Sakura replied. "I'm Sakura Haruno."

"Naruto Uzumaki."

"Kiba Inuzuka." He motioned towards the large white dog beside him. "And that's Akamaru."

"I am lady Cho and this is mistress Eri." Cho introduced.

"Mistress?" Naruto said puzzled. "She looks young enough to be your daughter..."

Sakura nailed him, leaving a large bump on his head causing Kiba to grin his famous grin. Eri suppressed a laugh while Cho attempted to subside her anger and ignored the comment.

The trio became serious.

"You've been summoned here because we have reason to believe someone is bewitching our Lord." Cho explained. "And we want you to find out who is the culprit."

"What do you mean bewitched?" Sakura asked.

"Several weeks ago the Lord began to fall ill. Each day he became worse and now he cannot leave his bed. No remedies have been able to cured him." Cho continued.

"The last few days a guard of one hundred men were appointed to watch him during the night, when he seems to suffer the most." Eri added with a down cast face.

"Eri, if you cannot control your emotions please leave us." Cho stated aggravated.

"Yes, Cho-sama." With that Eri left the room.

"Seems to be a bit of tension between those two." Kiba whispered in Naruto ear.

"I agree." He whispered back.

"Perhaps we three should be apart of this night's watch. We'll see if we can stay awake ourselves." Sakura suggested.

"A lovely idea." Cho remarked. "All guards are to gather in the courtyard at eight for the night watch. Don't be late. Now if you'll excuse me, I have something to tend to."

Naruto and Kiba fell on their backs in relief.

"We walked such a long way...Finally we get to rest!" Naruto cheered.

"Not so fast." Sakura shattered his relaxation. "Let's go around and get some statements from other people."

"Then I'll go ask Miss. Eri for her statement." Kiba grinned.

"Why do you get the cute mistress?" Naruto whined.

"Cause I called it. I get Eri!" He grinned that mischievous grin of his; Naruto crossed his arms in defeat.

"Then how about me and Sakura-chan ask questions together?" He smiled and clasped his hands together hopefully.

"Forget it, I'm no one's second choice." He face dropped in disappointment.

"I'm off then." Kiba and Akamaru ran off.

"Me too." Sakura ran off.

Naruto plopped back down with a frown, "I'm going to sleep."

Kiba and Akamaru had followed Eri's scent out to the gardens.

"Smelling is always harder around these flowers, I get distracted by so many scents." He was currently on all fours sniffing.

"Well that's not something you see every day." Eri giggled at his position. He quickly corrected himself and smiled at her. "You're a rather interesting person Kiba-kun."

"I hope that's not a bad thing."

"Far from it, it's refreshing. This place is normally so boring."

"How about we go for a walk and talk, Eri. Go ahead and play Akamaru" She nodded her head and together they strolled down the garden while the dog ran off to find a suitable napping place. "So Eri, what can you tell me about the bewitching?"

"In truth, I don't know much. One day my Lord joined us for breakfast and we noticed his face was drained and his body weak. Of course we called the physicians. They said he was suffering from lack of sleep and was extremely anemic."

"What about the night guards?"

"They've been named the Samoru, but even though they've been guarding the Lord hasn't recovered."

Before long they came to a clearing in the very center of the large garden where a small, wooden shrine stood.

"Kiba-kun...I need some time to pray for my Lord's recovery. If you don't mind."

"Not at all." He turned on his heels headed for the palace.

"Yo, Sakura!" Kiba waved as she was just walking away from one of the Samoru.

"Hey Kiba. Did you find out anything?" Sakura asked.

"Not really, except that Eri is pretty dedicated to the Lord." He replied with a sigh. "What about you?"

"Apparently the Lord hasn't been recovering because around ten at night then entire room falls asleep. No one is able to stay awake to protect the Lord."

"If all we have to do is stay awake this'll be a piece of cake." He grinned.

"We'll see...Hey, where's Naruto?"

"Haven't a clue." Kiba answered with a shrug.

"We'd best go find him before he gets into troub-Ouch!" Sakura grasped her bleeding finger.

"What happened?"

"I just cut my finger on these thorny vines is all." She wrapped the cut with a bandage. "Let's go."

_"Naruto...Naruto wake up..."_

"Sakura-chan..." Naruto moaned in his sleep with a perverted smile.

"Wake up Naruto." His eyes lazily opened to see Sakura smile down at him. "Come with me, Naruto."

"Where are we going?" He bounced awake.

"There's something I want to show you." She grabbed his hand and pulled him in the direction of the garden.

_'Alone with Sakura-chan...YES!'_ Naruto cheered in his mind. She led him into a clearing in the center of the garden where the shrine stood.

"Why'd you bring me here, Sakura-chan?"

"To do this..." She pushed him onto the ground. All of a sudden time seemed to slow down as his blue eyes gazed up into her green orbs. She lowered her face towards his and he shut his eyes, awaiting the kiss.

Instead his eyes shot open. There was pain in his neck. Sakura jumped back from him as he stood up; he was shaking. His hand touched the pained spot on his neck; blood was pouring down his shoulder and chest. She took so much blood in such a short time.

His head felt light. His wavering vision attempted to focus on her face...The blood dripped from the corner of her mouth and down her chin. She was grinning like she had won something amazing. The sunny day's breeze blowing through her pink hair gave her a sadistic look. And then...he collapsed.

Just as he began to black out, he saw her flee into the shrine and a fluffy, spotted cat emerged.


	2. Deception

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

So I went back to make grammar corrections to my chapters and well…I accidentally replaced chapter 2 with chapter 1's corrected file. Thus, I had to rewrite chapter 2. I wrote it so long ago I don't really remember everything that happened so there probably will be a difference in content. I'll upload the 3rd chapter within a week. Enjoy!

Vampire Cat

Chapter 2:Deception

_Flip. Flip. Flip. _The sound of pages in a book being flipped greeted Naruto's wakening consciousness. Sakura was sitting at a small table in front of his bed, flipping through a thick book.

"Oh, Naruto, you're awake now? How are you feeling?" Sakura inquire.

"Sak…ura!!!" He jumped from the bed in a panic, shielding his neck with his hands. A mistake as the blood rushed to his head, causing him to nearly go unconscious once more.

"What's with that reaction?" Sakura roared, throwing books in his direction. A rogue book missed him and was embedded in the wall next to the door.

Glass and tea went every. A young maid collapsed on the floor, her head having been nearly nailed by Sakura's over-powered throw.

"I'm sorry!" Sakura rushed to the maid's side.

"The second time I've ever had a near death experience…" The maid whispered through her daze.

The maid was dressed in a pure white kimono and her hair was pulled up out of her lovely young face.

"Pretty…" Naruto mumbled.

"How bold…" Sakura replied angrily.

"I didn't mean…!"

"Right." She cut him off. A metaphorical spear was driven into Naruto's body.

Meanwhile, the maid had begun to clear up the broken teacups.

"Let me, it's my fault they broke anyways." Sakura began to help.

"I'd be in trouble if the Feudal Lady knew I was keeping you from work by having you do my job. Please, continue working and I'll return with more tea." She scurried off (probably relieved to be away from Sakura's pro right arm).

Naruto glanced at the open book on the table. The title read, "Nekomata: The Bakeneko." (Monster Cat)

"Oh that reminds me!" He looks back to Sakura and makes a terrified face.

"What?" She grumbles annoyed.

"Let me see your mouth Sakura-chan." Before she could react he had an index finger in each corner of her mouth, pulling it wide to attempt to reveal the fangs from before.

"Get off me!" She slammed her with her powerful fists.

"Ok…I believe it's the real Sakura-chan." He wheezed painfully.

"Of course it is! You've been so weird since we found you Naruto… What happened to you?" She sounded half worried.

Naruto wasn't sure what he had seen himself. He couldn't get the image of Sakura's face, his blood dripping from the corners of her grinning face. Maybe it was a dream? He touched his next at the "dream" and noticed the bandages. 'There's no doubting it. That was real.'

"Naruto…" Sakura said worried. "Tell me what happened."

"You bit me."

Sakura stared at him, shocked.

"But, it wasn't you was it." He strained to remember the other details, his head aching. "A cat! There was a cat! It had two tails!"

He stopped suddenly. "That book." He began to read its pages.

Sakura merely looked on, puzzled.

"This! Sakura look!" He pointed to a paragraph in the book.

It read; _Cats that are allowed to grow their tails long, or reach the age of 13 are capable of becoming a_ _Bakeneko. These ghost cats have many supernatural abilities including shape shifting, corpse reanimation, size manipulation, upright walking, and ghostly fireballs. Once the tail of Bakeneko is allowed to fork into two, it becomes a Nekomata and becomes capable of magic manipulation in humans._

"You see?" Naruto asked. "This is what I saw!"

She stared at him as though he had an octopus sitting upon his head. "Are you nuts? That's just an old myth."

"Maybe you're right…I must be going insane." He placed the book back in its spot on the table just as the maid reentered with new teacups.

"Sorry to disturb you again, but the Samoru are about to begin their shift tonight. I thought you might want to know and prepare." Sakura thanked her. The maid noticed the book on the table, "You're looking into legends?"

"Well, it was filed in the royalty's history so I thought it might be worth looking at." Sakura replied.

"I see, that legend came around about the time of Lady Takara, you may want to look into her if it'd help any. I can't promise anything."

"Oh thank you for the tip." Sakura said, a bit confused by the sudden suggestion.

"If I can be of any help, please just summon me." She turned and left.

"Humph. What a weird girl. Naruto, hurry up and finish your tea. It's time for work."

"Where's Kiba?"

"Already down there, he was doing additional research."

He sighed with defeat and followed after her.

"Yo Sakura, Naruto!" Kiba was already seated in the large room. Akamaru was curled around him. They took seats on the floor next to him.

"So, you guys would be the special ninjas the lord sent for huh. You kids think you can do better than the lord's own guards?" A man towered over them.

"Well no wonder they fall asleep All his guards are old men." Naruto insulted the man.

"Why you!" The Samoru's face turned red. "I bet you'll be fallen asleep within the first hour! There aint nothing natural about the sleep that occurs here. Just you wait."

"I bet my own manliness that I'll be the last one up!" Naruto crowed.

"You gotta be a man to bet your manliness." The Samoru laughed.

"Well…!" The entrance of the Feudal Lord cut Naruto's statement short.

He stood there, his sickly body hutched over. Eyes were sunken into his eye sockets and darkened by many ringlets of sleepless nights. He gazed out over the many guards and then quietly made his way to his bed, a doctor and the Feudal Lady assisting him.

"Do your best for your lord tonight." Lady Cho announced to the men before leaving the room with the doctor. The lights were turned out and the darkness engulfed the audience.

After a few minutes, the trio's eyes adjusted to the dark. They could make out the frame of the large bed and the frail lord who lay upon it. He breathed softly with sleep.

It was well into the night before men began to doze, slumping slightly against one another or slowly lowering to the floor.

It was now early morning, around one or so and Naruto felt a pressure against his shoulder. He looked down into Sakura's sleeping face.

'_Cute!'_ He thought to himself. His face turned red from the feeling of her slumbering body.

He looked around the room and noticed that all the men were slumbering softly. He finally realized just how tired he was. The sudden urge to curl up with Sakura became unbearable. He gently laid he against Akamaru and took a kunai from his pocket.

With one deep breath, he plunged the tip into his thigh. The feeling of sleep suddenly leapt from his back and he was once again, wide-awake. Every now and then the sleep would return and he'd chase it away with a twist of the kunai.

After some time went by, he noticed the door to the room creak open and the spotted cat from before entered. It crept in the room cautiously, sniffing at the air. It suddenly froze, sniffed, and set its eyes on Naruto.

A sudden swing of sleep crashed down on him even harder than before. The cat swished its tail aggravated. It crept toward Naruto and as it neared sleep became more and more difficult to resist.

A menacing, toothy grin crossed the cat's face, its fangs glowing in the moonlight.

With one desperate lung, Naruto swung at the cat. His kunai sliced across its shoulder.

The cat screeched and darted from the room. Almost instantly, the Samoru began to awaken.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried. His thigh was coated in blood.

"I'm alright." He glanced towards the Feudal Lord whom was still sleeping peacefully.

From then on, none of the men felt the tantalizing embrace of sleep anymore. In the morning, the lord rose with surprise.

In what seemed like years, he had slept for a whole night.


	3. Veracity

Disclaimer: I do no own Naruto.

* * *

"Gah! Does Naruto really expect us to believe he saw a demon cat last night?" Sakura whined as she flipped through the Nekomata.

"If this is what he says he saw then I believe him." Kiba peered over her shoulder at the contents of the book.

"For heaven's sake…" Sakura continued to flip the pages. "How are we supposed to be able to fight against something that can copy someone's body entirely? It's totally different than a copy jutsu…"

"We'll manage; we aren't weak children anymore you know."

"I suppose you're right." Sakura offered him a weak smile.

Naruto began to stir under his blankets.

"Morning…" Naruto yawned.

"It's four in the evening." Kiba laughed.

"Where are you going Naruto?" Sakura called after him.

"I've been sleeping all day, I need some exercise!" He grinned.

"Sheesh…"

* * *

"Ahhhh!" Naruto moaned as he stretched out his limbs. "Much better!"

"Good evening Uzumaki-kun."

"Oh Eri-sama." Naruto bowed. "What're you doing out here?"

"Just on a walk. It's very lovely this time of year out here, very green and fresh." She inhaled for emphasis.

"You're right!" he smiled.

"Would you care to join me for some evening tea Uzumaki-kun?"

"Oh…" He blushed, "that would be really nice."

Eri continued to smile warmly as she took his hand and began to lead him towards a nearby Gazebo. It was overlooking a small pond where koi fish were swimming. Every now and then a fish would leap out of the water and snag a slow insect.

"Does Gyokuro tea suit you?"

"Oh, yes."

Eri smiled as she lifted the small pot and poured the green liquid into the tiny tea cups.

"Tell me about yourself Uzumaki-kun. How did you become so strong?"

Naruto gazed at Eri and took a sip of the tea.

"You don't have to praise me you know…" Naruto had become sullen.

"What is wrong? Does the tea taste badly?"

"It's nothing like that. I just noticed something." Eri watched him through puzzled eyes. "When I first came here, you had poured your tea with your right hand dominate." Eri's grin morphed into a deep scowl. "This time, you poured with your left. If I remember correctly, it was the right shoulder I slashed."

"That's very observant of you." Eri hissed.

"You know what that means don't you?" Naruto eyed her smugly.

"Indeed I do." Eri smiled, flashing a pair of sharp fangs.

She flipped the table up, attempting to smash him under it but he was strong enough to throw it aside. Each fighter began to throw punches and each dodged until one of Naruto's managed to slam into her injured shoulder.

She hissed in pain as she backed away. "Is the kitty going to come quietly?"

"Don't be so confident. I've been going easy in this form."

Her face flashed with panic for a moment. "We'll have to settle this another time."

The nekomata turned and began to run. Naruto attempted to chase after but he felt her sleep spell slow him down.

"Naruto!" Sakura's voice could be heard as she neared. "Naruto! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I've found the nekomata, it was Eri."

"Eri?" Kiba said with surprise.

"Yeah, I've lost her. She's going to be more careful, we'll have to watch everyone around us closely." Naruto mumbled.

"If it's Eri, I wonder what she's hiding in that shrine." The duo looked at Kiba confused.

* * *

A/N

Sry it's such a short chapter for such a long time that I haven't updated...

Basically, there's probably only one more chapter left, maybe 2 if I really stretch it :)

I'm sorry I didn't update like I said I was going to but I write for fun and if I write when I dont wanna...well...no point in writing then xD

Anyways, hope you readers enjoyed this chapter.


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